Composition in Blue Painting

Smilow believes that now, more than ever, people have felt the need to notice joy in their lives. Smilow, a well-known contemporary artist based in New York City, was immersed in an environment oriented towards art and artistic principles. Her father was Mel Smilow, a mid-twentieth-century furniture designer whose award winning and critically reviewed designs focused on clean lines and beautiful proportions. Growing up in the only fully realized Frank Lloyd Wright community in the U.S., in an environment that was all about the integration of home, furnishings and art, Smilow brings her keen intuition when helping an art collector choose one of her paintings. Smilow works with a variety of mediums to produce works on paper, collage, and large scale acrylic paintings. Her work is characterized by a vibrant color palette and certain motifs that regularly appear. Typically, Smilow will choose a color family to work with on a given painting, such as a group of analogous pinks, reds and oranges, which will be offset by an underpainting consisting of many layers of complementary colors which add depth and dimension to the surface. Smilow uses recurring images such as houses, dresses, tall trees, circles and birds to convey meaning and emotion to the viewer; the techniques of collage and sewing that are used to adhere these elements to the painting add texture. Smilow established a unique tradition of visiting collectors in their homes, so that they could connect people directly with the art they would be living with. Smilow continues this personal approach to placing her paintings, stating that a home “feels like a home when the art fits.” In the words of SF Bay Area designer Deborah Lewis Gadbois, Piedmont-based decorator Deborah Gadbois on Smilow:“Her art work is vibrant, friendly, and approachable. Her sophisticated yet playful use of layered color, texture, and iconic imagery arouse memories of childhood, favorite places, and positive emotions. It is all so familiar and recognizable; it just feels good to be in live with and be in front of her art."